McDowell preparing mechanism to continue ‘bombast’?

Interesting argument in Daily Ireland on the weekend’s Progressive Democrat conference. It picks up on a line: “Time and again, the pair stressed their attachment not to the Irish nation or its citizens, but to the ‘state'”.Butit also believes it has detected a whiff of McCarthyism in the Justice Minister’s speech:

In a disturbing escalation which may herald a 1950s-style political witch-hunt, McDowell warned of ‘well placed sleepers and collaborators, some of them pillars of society’. It may be, of course, that there is no cause for alarm, and that McDowell is merely seeking a mechanism to continue his bombast about the republican ‘menace’ even after the IRA issues a general order to disband.

What’s fascinating is that it takes as read that a general order is on its way (when is another question). It’s also surmising where the next political threat is to Sinn Fein is likely to come from. It may be that the ‘mechanism’ refered to is simply the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty